. >> eliot: for more on the fiscal cliff negotiations and today's confrontation, let's go to michael tomasky political correspondent. michael, this constitutes high drama by washington standards. any surprise that the president's proposal was outright rejected by speaker boehner? it was an "in your face" proposal to him. >> it was. i'm not surprised. i don't think any of us are surprised it was rejected. i think we're a little surprised, maybe a lot surprised it was put forward in the first place. this is really different. barack obama, this is a really different negotiating posture and position that he is starting from. if we look back to that horrible debt ceiling fiasco from last summer in 2011, i think we all remember how bleak that was that obama started his negotiating position really from a place that met the republicans more than halfway so he was going to be bound to end up meeting them in the final analysis. which is what happened. it was demoralizing. now, after re-election, he has been obviously very embowdenned. he's put forth something -- it is clear they won't accept i